Elections 2024 - What Lies Ahead
By Aslam Abdullah
CA
2024 is the election year in the USA.
The country will hold its 60th presidential election on November 5, 2024. The winner of the 2024 presidential election will assume office on January 20, 2025.
Joe Biden (D) and Donald Trump (R) became the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees on March 12, 2024. The Democratic Party will make an official presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, and the Republican Party will make an official presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in July 2024.
Congress
A total of 468 seats in the US Congress (33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats) are up for election on November 5, 2024.
Two special elections are for November 5, 2024. One special election will fill the last two years of the six-year term Ben Sasse (R) was elected to in 2020. The other special election will fill the rest with the six-year term Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) assumed in 2018. Feinstein died on September 29, 2023. The Senate seat Feinstein held is also up for regular election on November 5, 2024.
Ahead of the elections, Republicans hold a majority in the US House, while Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats hold a majority in the US Senate.
Executive election
State executive offices up for election in 2024 include:
- 11 gubernatorial seats.
- Nine lieutenant gubernatorial seats.
- Ten attorney general seats.
- Seven secretaries of state seats.
State Legislatures
There are 99 state legislative chambers in the 50 states. In 44 states, 85 chambers held regular legislative elections in 2024. These elections are for 5,793 of the country's 7,386 state legislative seats (78%).
In the US Territories, eight legislative chambers hold regularly scheduled elections for 169 seats in 2024. Elections will be held for the American Samoa House of Representatives, the Guam Legislature, the Puerto Rico Senate and House of Representatives, the Northern Mariana Islands Senate and House of Representatives, and the US Virgin Islands Legislature.
Municipal
Municipal elections are in 80 counties and 78 cities, including 41 mayoral elections, in 2024.
Elections are also being held for local positions in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. That includes elections for mayor in 19 cities in Guam and 78 cities in Puerto Rico.
Judges
A total of 304 appellate court seats are up for election in 2024. The seats include 83 Supreme Court seats.
Four judges will be on the ballot in 2024's retention elections. To remain on the bench, one judge on the Guam Supreme Court, two on the Guam Superior Court, and one on the Northern Mariana Islands Superior Court must stand for retention.
Ballot measures
As of May 2024, 110 statewide ballot measures have been certified for the ballot in 35 states for the 2024 elections.
(Dr Aslam Abdullah is a resident scholar at Islamicity.org and editor-in-chief of the Muslim Observer newspaper. He is also the Indian Islamic Heritage Project director of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian origin and the interim President of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations, WCMIR.)
